Saturday, 15 August 2009

I really like Hip Hop with a message. This song is called 'Heal'. Which stands for HUMAN EDUCATION AGAINST LIES. The track features Kid Capri, Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC, MC Lyte, KRS ONE and a whole host of others.

Thursday, 13 August 2009

I saw this film last night. I thought it was really good. It was gripping, it held my attention from start to finish.

It is about some aliens called, 'Prawns', that arrive and have been living in Johannesberg, South Africa for the last twenty years. They are kept away from Humans in a place called 'District 9', which quickly becomes a slum. The way the 'Prawn' aliens are treated is familiar to the way Blacks in aparteid South Africa were treated or even Jews in Nazi Germany.

The 'Prawns' are policed by the ominous big corporate private defense firm called NMU, whose presence is a hint to the real life foul-play of similar instittutions. NMU is only interested in money, weapons and power despite the consequences.

The film is very gory much in the same way Alien is, but I couldn't take my eyes of the screen.The visual effects and graphics of the aliens and their technology is amazing.

The depiction of Nigerians in the film is the only racial cock-up (pardon my French), they are all depicted as blood thirsty, money hungry swindlers which is a stereotype taken too far in my opinion. But this does not detract from the quality of the film.

The best Alien film I've seen in a long time. Better than Alien & the new Star Trek. The mix of documentary style and big blockbuster make the film seem very real and believable.

The director Neil Blomkamp is very talented and has made films and adverts revolving around similar sci-fi themes such as robots and aliens. You can check them out by doing a quick search on youtube or google.

Thursday, 6 August 2009

Tarantino delivers a World War Two saga with a pulp dynamic. Brad Pitt takes the reigns as Lt. Aldo Raine, in charge of the "Basterds" a group of Jews sent behind enemy lines to kill nazis. Tarantino paints his cinematic brush and offers the audience a landscape of film references. 'Inglourious Basterds' contains the trademark Tarantino glamour, violence and razor sharp dialogue we've come to expect from the master of B-Movies and independent cinema.

Christopher Waltz is excellent as the jew-hunting, multilingual nazi Col. Hans Landa, the ensemble cast is amazing just like Pulp Fiction, Tim Schweiger plays the psychotic, nazi killer Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz and Mike Myers has a brief moment as an English intelligence briefing officer. There are also plenty of gorgeous blondes to indulge Tarantino's foot fetish. The leading ladies are Melanie Laurent who plays a famous actress/spy as well as the Jewish girl living life as a Parisian cinema owner played by Diane Kruger.

Tuesday, 4 August 2009

Baatin (Titus Glover) is one third of the original Slum Village line up. He died on Saturday morning, the cause of death is still unknown. He had ongoing health problems and fell into a brief coma last year. Needless to say, he will be sorely missed by the Hip Hop community, it's a shame that he has gone to join his band mate the famous Jay Dee/J Dilla (James Yancey) on the other side.

Slum Village is one of my favorite crews of all time. Baatin comes very ridiculous with the flows, style and content he's almost like a kind of more conscious, Detroit ODB.

Check the opening track of Fantastic Vol.1 for a glimpse of Baatin's obscenely dope rhyming style on the link below...